Photographer:
Elizabeth O'Brien
Submitter: EIO photo, Somerville, Mass.
An ironworker proudly shows off the work his trade is
doing at Trinity Boston luxury condominiums in Boston.
The photo is called: "The House that Mat Bulit."

Construction
is tough work, but many people love it. They take pride in
the fact that what they are helping to create will be around
for yearsmaybe even longer than they will be aliveand
serve an important role in their community and nation.

Just like artistic talent, construction
skills don't come easily. They can be learned from family
and friends, on the job or, more formally, in apprenticeship
programs and even technical schools and colleges.

Not everyone who starts down the
path to becoming a construction craft worker stays the course.
Some people can do the course work, but "just don"t
get it" when the time comes to actually work with the
tools as a carpenter, electrician, ironworker or sheet metal
worker. For others, mastering the technical aspects of today's
construction industry proves too difficult. For still others,
the work is too hard, dangerous, cold, hot, sporadic or distant
to allow them to live what they would consider a normal life.

Those who stay the course are artists
in every sense of the word. They take the raw materials of
constructionsteel, concrete, brick, lumber, wire and
pipeand create masterpieces that the public can enjoy
without going to a museum. Conceptualization, adaptation and
execution are all part of the job, as well as delivering high-quality
work on time and budget. Not all artists have such demands.

Project photographs often are the
only way of preserving the record of the crafts at work. Pride
of work, love of industry, satisfaction of being part of something
larger than life—they all come shining through.